CHISELLING BODIES

Performed at CHI2013 and at Open Doors of Ircam-Centre Pompidou / Paris France / 2013

Chiseling Bodies is a duo between a dancer and interactive visuals displaying a large number of light particles. The visuals are made of a massive particle system relying on a physical model that generates behaviors responding to the movement qualities of the dancer extracted in real time with a Kinect camera and and two accelerometers on the dancers’ wrists. The visuals’ dynamics are designed as an echo, a response and a presence, tuned to the dancer’s movement qualities and energy. They generate various metaphorical viual behaviors such as a ‘rosette’, a ‘blossoming’ or a ‘chaotic’. These behaviors evoke the different dynamics and forms of the dance movement. The visuals are both interactive and generative; they have self-agency and vary their response by creating an effect of surprise. They are perceived as alive making their own choices as much as a dance “partner” might respond to the dancer.

Chiseling Bodies was initially developed in collaboration with Marion Cavaillé, a ballet dancer of the Ballet National of Marseille. We collaborated together in choreographing a structured dance improvisation and designing the visuals’ interaction scenarios. We designed a structure of the performance that involves both the physicality of the dancer and the visuals and reflects the subtle dialogue linking the dancer’s movement qualities and the visuals’ abstract dynamics.